1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to camera apparatus for photographing vehicles. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for utilizing large format cameras for photographing still images of vehicles appearing to be in motion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the advertising industry in particular, it is often necessary to obtain photographs of vehicles, capturing the image of motion. One of the techniques that have been used to create the illusion of motion is by moving the camera by hand or on a tripod in a a panning action utilizing a time exposure. By doing this, the vehicle generally appears in focus while the background will be blurred and the rotation of the wheels will appear blurred. Large format photography is desirable to achieve crisp, sharp color images required in many advertising industry applications such as catalogs. By large format, it is meant 4".times.5" (10 cm..times.13 cm.) or larger, or typically 8".times.10" 20 cm..times.26 cm.). While this does in some sense achieve that feeling or illusion of motion, the technique is not suitable for large format photography. As indicated, large format photography is desirable to achieve crisp sharp images required in many advertising industry applications. While this technique may be acceptable with 35 mm cameras, which are reasonably light and easily moved by hand, it becomes much more difficult when using a large format camera. The reason for this is that the large format view camera such as the 8".times.10" (20 cm..times.26 cm.) camera is far heavier. The advantages acheived by this larger camera in terms of image sharpness are significantly lost when vibration or hand held photography is introduced.
Various other techniques have been used in connection with hand held photography, attempting to create the illusion of motion. For example, some have utilized a false blurred background. This, however, results in vehicle wheels which appear frozen rather than moving. Thus it would be desirable to have more effective techniques or apparatus available for large format photographing of vehicles.